Legitimation by multimodal means : a theoretical and analytical enquiry with specific reference to American political spot advertisements

What is ‘legitimacy’? Is legitimation possible through non-linguistic modes? These are the key theoretical questions with which this study is concerned. It explores them in conjunction with an analysis of American political spot advertisements. These ads are situated at the nexus between legitimation and multimodality, and their relevance to contemporary politics on the world stage is reflected in the immense financial and skilled resources which have been — and continue to be — devoted to them. A historical perspective into legitimation, multimodality and the attendant concepts of rationality and irrationality is given, followed by a discussion challenging the assumed rational role accorded to language. So challenged, the discussion moves to looking at the pairing of multimodality and politics; first from a historical viewpoint, and then from a more contemporary one. The role of myth, in the form of the American Dream, is investigated, leading to discussion of political appropriation, branding, tangibility, affordances and the (im)possibility of restricting interpretation. Spot ads are analysed with a specific focus: first on modal salience, and secondly on how the semiotic richness of the concept of nature is exploited for purposes of legitimation

Using verbal irony to move on with controversial issues

Irony is an effective means of dealing with controversy in organizations, but there is a paucity of knowledge of the various ways in which irony helps managers to do so without necessarily ‘solving’ those issues. By drawing on discursive incongruity theory, we examine the use of irony when managers are confronted with controversial issues in a multinational company. As a result, we identify and elaborate on four distinctively different pathways of how irony helps participants to move on: ‘acquiescing’ (framing understanding as having no alternative because of environmental constraints), ‘empowering’ (synthesizing a view through broad inputs from different individuals), ‘channelling’ (subsuming other interpretations under a single and often dominant view) and ‘dismissing’ (rejecting alternative interpretations and often reinforcing the status quo). On this basis, we develop a theoretical model that elucidates the process dynamics in dealing with and moving on with controversial issues and elaborates the specific characteristics of each of these four pathways. Our analysis also leads to a fuller understanding of the discursive underpinnings and intersubjective dynamics in irony use in organizations

Optical Characterisation of Hydroxide Catalysed Bonds Applied to Phosphate Glass

We apply the Hydroxide Catalysis Bonding (HCB) technique to phosphate glass and measure the reflectivity and Light Induced Damage Threshold (LITD) of the newly formed interface. HCB is a room temperature, high performing process which was designed for astronomical research glass assemblies and played a key role in the detection of gravitational waves, a breakthrough in contemporary science. The bonds have numerous assets including mechanical strength, stability, no outgassing and resistance to contamination which are of high interest in the precision optics industry. However only little research has been done on their optical properties and mostly on silica based materials. In this paper, we use HCB to bond phosphate glass at room temperature with the goal of designing composite components for solid state laser gain media. We change the solution parameters to identify how they influence the final properties of the bonds: the LIDT at 1535 nm in long pulse regime and the reflectivity at 532 nm are investigated. The measurement of the incidence dependent reflectance allows estimating the thickness and refractive index of the bond in a non destructive process. The best performing set of parameters yields a LIDT of 1.6 GW/cm2 (16 J/cm2) and a reflectivity below 0.03 % which makes it suitable for use in high power lasers. The bond thickness is derived both from Scanning Electron Microscopy and the reflectivity measurements and is in the range of 50-150 nm depending on the parameters. Finally, the bonds survive cutting and polishing which is promising for manufacturing purpose

Substructure in the lens HE 0435-1223

We investigate the properties of dark matter substructure in the gravitational lens HE 0435-1223 (z_l=0.455) via its effects on the positions and flux ratios of the quadruply-imaged background quasar (z_s=1.689). We start with a smooth mass model, add individual, truncated isothermal clumps near the lensed images, and use the Bayesian evidence to compare the quality of different models. Compared with smooth models, models with at least one clump near image A are strongly favored. The mass of this clump within its Einstein radius is log(Mein/Msun) = 7.65 +0.87/-0.84. The Bayesian evidence provides weaker support for a second clump near image B, with log(Mein/Msun) = 6.55 +1.01/-1.51. We also examine models with a full population of substructure, and find the mass fraction in substructure at the Einstein radius to be f_sub > 0.00077, assuming the total clump masses follow a mass function dN/dM proportional to M^(-1.9) over the range M = 10^7-10^10 Msun. Few-clump and population models produce similar Bayesian evidence values, so neither type of model is objectively favored.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables. MNRAS accepte

Testing, stretching, and aligning:Using ‘ironic personae’ to make sense of complicated issues

Irony and humor play an important role in both organizing and organizations, because they both help to collide and contrast ideas as well as mitigate and moderate criticism. Our empirical observations of a senior management team suggest participants frequently use verbal irony and aggressive conversational humor through ‘ironic personae’ – a cast of characters, real or imaginary – as a vehicle for pragmatically making sense of complicated topics. We show how ironic personae perform three functions: (i) testing new positions on topics in a non-committal way; (ii) stretching the frame of comparison of a group; and (iii) aligning shared understanding and commitment. Thus, our analysis sheds light on an underexplored and undertheorised pragmatic vehicle for the expression of humorous verbal irony and aggressive conversational humor